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A CHALICE OF CHARM.
Helena Reservoir Area:.
Torches in the.Night.
Cupped among the Darling Ranges.
Helena Reservoir offers a chalice of
charm known fully' to few. The hills
wear a "fair and floral air" to-day. Love
liness lies there. Even in the depth of
winter. spring treads lightly among the
woods. The marks of her feet are seen
in many an early wild flower. Her
hands have touched the red-brown leaves
of young trees.
Mundaring Weir has its own beauty.
Soon thousands of city people will gather
there while the floods of winter fall and
thunder. Beyond the weir, however, is
the reservoir catchment area a coun
try. bf a delicate beauty scarcely rivalled
in the State. To most it is an unknown
realm of woodland wonder, shielded from
lay gaze by the Goldfields Water Supply
and Forests Departments. Negotia-
tions are now proceeding to. open the
area to the public on certain days and
under rigid restrictions.
The reserved jarrah forest of the Mun
daring district covers 140.000 acres:
Roughly, its boundaries are Glen For-
rest, Wooroloo, the junction of the Hel-
ena and Darkin Rivers. Mt. Dale, Death
Adder Creek. Kangaroo Gully (south- of
Karragullen). a point west of Victoria
Reservoir. Bickley. and South Kala-
munda. The Forests Department. since
it has organised a very complete scheme
of fire control and has commenced ex
tensive pine plantations on resumed
farm lands, is intimately concerned in
any public intrusion. To show what
the foresters are doing. the Acting Con-
servator of Forests (Mr. S. L. Kessell)
conducted a small party, including ,Mr
R.S. Sampson, M.L.A.. in whose electo-
rate the district lies, over the road which
girdles the Helena reservoir, last Thurs-
day morning.
This road meets the main Mundaring-
Mundaring Weir'highway about two
miles south-east of the former township
Up Hill and Down Gully,
with.many a sharp curve and many a
passage along the unguarded edge of a
steep declivity, it winds for 18 miles
until, the reservoir skirted, it ends be-
side No. 1 pumping station at the weir.
Built at a cost of about £13.500 to aid
the transport of firewood for the two
pumping station in the vicinity,
the gravel road has a perman-
ent utility foreign to the usual mill
truckway. It was never intended,
of course, for use by touring motorists.
It was patent on Thursday that the
opinion of the Minister for Forests (Mr.
J. Scaddan) that the existing road. if
opened at all should be traversed by one
way traffic only. is sound.
A stop was made where men were
planting young pines upon the dewy
slopesof a low hill. In the valley was
the nursery from which the trees had
been taken. New Zealand cultivates
hard woods because of its dearth of such.
In Western Australia the need is for
softwoods. In fact. it is so throughout
Australia. which imported £4,500,000
worth last year. The pine plantations
of the Forests Department are designed
to supply the want. This year 50.000
of the pinus insignia species and 10.000
pinus pinaster will be planted. All with-
in thirty miles of Perth!
The car sped through the woods. mile
followed mile among scenes of sylvan
beauty, broken by glimpses of the re
servoir. serene and blue under a blue
sky. The crossing of the upper reaches
of the Helena and Darkin Rivers pro-
vided an unforgettable picture-pools of
quietness, placid and polished in the sun.
rimmed by tall trees that pondered over
their reflected elegance. Willows and
broad leaf oaks will grow there too, be
fore long.
On again, past Pickering Brook. bab
bling among its stones. until Mr. Kessel
halted the car and took the party among
young jarrah trees fire-scourged some
years ago. Almost every tree told a
story of perverted development. Here,
where fire had licked the base, of the
trunk, a limb had jutted from the main
tree- too near the ground. Next year an
other fire passed by and another limb
appeared. So the erect growth was.
marred in. this and countless other trees.
Near the weir end of the reservoir the
car was left. U- the winding forest track
the party rode to
The Summit of Mt. Gunjin.
1.400ft. above sea level. The ascent
was made in order that a full view might
be secured of the area under fire con-
trol. The suggestion that motorists
should be allowed to use the 18-mile
forest road menaces the scheme
of fire suppression instituted by the
Forests Department last year. Even 'if
that department be won over to some
method by which the public may see
the catchment area, the concurrence of
the Chief Engineer for Water Supply
(Mr. P.V. O'Brien) is necessary. How-
ever, the purpose of Thursday's. visit
was to study the forest aspect of the
question.
The fire control scheme is remark-
ably complete in detail The whole
area of 140.000 acres has been divided
into three blocks, subdivided into com-
partments of 500 acres each. Prior to
last year's fire season, two look-out plat-
forms 30ft high were erected – one on
Mount Gunjin and another on Mount
Dale (1,700ft. above sea level). The
mounts are 14 miles apart. . Each com-
mands a big expanse of country. The
lookout towers are fitted with (1) a
theodolite for reading horizontal angles,
(2) a table carrying a compartment plan
of the district: (3) a heliograph fitted
on a permanent stand, and (4) a tele-
phone instrument. Twenty-five miles
of telephone line link the lookouts with
district headquarters at Mundaring Weir
and four substations on the tops, of
smaller hills. At. the foot of each
lookout tower on Mount Gunjin and
Mount Dale is a hut for the accommoda
tion of the man on watch. The cost of
erecting and equipping a complete look-
out station, including hut and tower,
was £270. The telephone line worked
out at £28 per mile.
So much for the equipment. How
does the organisation work? In the
fire season, which covers about five
months in the jarrah bush, a watchman
is kept constantly on each lookout every
day of the week. A "block" needs at
least three men besides the forester in
charge. In rotation the three men
perform for seven-day periods the du-
ties of lookout man, patrol, and spare
man. The look-out man
Ascends His Tower
at 8.30 a.m. and remains there till' 5
p.m. After a final survey of the coun-
try he reports to district headquarters
at. 6.30 p.m. If no fires "are
sighted. "all clear" signals are
exchanged with the other look-out
every half-hour. If suspicious
smoke is sighted, the bearing is taken
and, transmitted. to the other lookout,
who also takes a bearing. The two
bearings are ruled on a plan thus locat-
uing the fire with fair precision. The lo-
cation is, checked and information con-
veyed to district headquarters. At the
same time the lookout; stations must
heliograph . the position of the fire to
patrols or others, in the bush.
One patrol man to every 50.000 acres
is necessary during the first fire season.
When the season opens a patrol man
delivers notices concerning the provi-
sions of the Bush Fires Act to farmers
and orchardists in and around the for-
ests. His presence.is a consiant warn-
ing and reminder. to bush workers. He
patrols according to a given programme.
The times at which he is due to call at
certain fixed heliograph stations are
known. to the lookout man. Heliograph
stations are clearings marked on the
plan from which some specified lookout
station is visible.
In a paper read before the recent
Interstate Forestry Conference in Bris-
bane MIr. Kessell. who is mainly respon-
sible for- the system outlined above.
stated:--'A few months' experience has
been sufficient to show that cheap and
efficient fire control is possible in jarrah
forests. Local propagainda will lay the
foundation to successful fire control.
Efficient legislation regarding locomo-
tives and the burning off of adjoining
private 'property by. agriculturists and
graziers will soon be recognised as ne
cessary provisions for the protection of
a public asset. Constantly manned fire
lookouts will be the chief protective men
sure. and every gang working in the
bush, whether engaged on sylvicultural
or. exploitation operations: and whether
'paid by the State or by private indi
viduals, will be a potential fire fighting
force.
The Sympathy of Settlers
in and around the forest who profit by
immunity from bush fires is readily ob
tained. nod these men are able to give
valuable help at times of emergency.
The problem of keepiung lookouts in
touch with each other and with fire
fighting forces will be solved by' three
mneans-(1) Heliographs. (2) telephones
(permanent and portable). and (3) small
wireless sets. Heliographs and wireless.
telegraphy have the disadvantage of re
quiring .an observer to, be watching-.or
'listening in' constantly. This. disability
will be. overcome by employing boys,
chiefly forest apprenticies, during the
summer months as observers attending
to instruments in the neighbourhood of
large gangs of men.'
Last summer, under this control sy-
stem 12 men reduced fires in the Mun-
daring catchment district to one percent
of the total area. In previous years the
average was 30 per cent. Had it not been
for the watchful lookouts on Mt.- Giujin
and Mt- Dale last year the wisps of
smoke which rose towards the, sky here
and there would have developed, into
big conflagrations. The only fire which
assumed any size began at night. Kan
garoo hunters apparently were respons-
ible. With a nice precision each man
posted himself, at a distance from the
other. To prevent any uncomfortable
nearness of whizzing bullets, positions
were indicated by lighted blackboys.
Those flaming torches in the night touch-
ed the forest with fire. Only strong fight
ing subdued the blaze.
Seen from the lookout on Mt. Gunjin.
a wealth of trees graced the hills: and
valleys. Yet an idly flung cigarette butt
could change the leafy wealth to charred
poverty and twisted uselessness! If only
people could be trusted to venerate and
guard the forest sanctities while wander-
ing among the woods! So wonderful a
panorama disclosed itself from that hill
top–the waters of the reservoir below
peeping through the trees; the plumed
hills: Rottnest lighthouse pointing to
wards the evening sky; the burnished
silver of the sea.
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